Oh, Now I Get It … The Force ‘Awakens’

I hate online fan theories. They’re so long and tedious and have one of two effects: 1) it all seems super obvious in hindsight and I get upset that I didn’t think of it first, or 2) there’s no way it’s true and I’m just angry that theory is out in the ether (JOKER BETTER NOT BE JASON FUCKING TODD).

And go see Force Awakens already. It’s the most fun you’ll have at the movies this decade.

The first time they speak, Snoke (big hologram bad guy) says there has been an “awakening” in the Force and asks Kylo Ren (Darth Emo) if he’d felt it. Ren says yes. The only scene before this where Ren “senses” anything is after the raid on Jakku when Finn refuses to fight. Ren sees him there, looks at him meaningfully and then walks away.

So the title is pretty literal, then. The Force is “awakening” and suddenly all the Force-sensitive people are becoming “attuned” to it. It sounds like they’re basically pulling a Buffy series finale, when all the “potential slayers” started “activating.” It’s a cool concept and explains why Finn “woke up” from his trooper conditioning.

It also explains why he’s able to hold his own at all against Ren at the end.

It also explains why, after touching Luke’s lightsaber – or maybe from just being given just a teeny bit more encouragement than Finn – Rey is able to tap into the Force so readily.

So, spoiler, Finn is totally gonna be a Jedi at some point in the trilogy.

Also, I know he was originally scripted to perish early on but Poe Dameron is totally a “Force-sensitive” individual as well. What with so much made of him being such an amazing pilot and all – best in the Resistance I believe – like Luke and little Ani before him. I mean, he was bull’s-eyeing stormtroopers in his X-Wing – and they’re not much bigger than two meters.

That’d be cool, we’d get to see three people become Jedi over a trilogy. Assuming they all survive long enough. Unless some decide to go the General Leia route and forgo the Jedi training altogether…

This whole idea may also negate the entire speculative debate over Rey’s parentage. I’m certain there’s a mystery to her history (as hinted at by her flashback sequence) but if all Force-sensitive folks can potentially be as powerful as Rey (given the opportunity), a Skywalker heritage may not be necessary to explain her aptitude. This would maybe leave Ben “Kylo Ren” Solo as the only latest-generation heir to the prodigious Skywalker lineage…

Besides, it’d be a lot of expositional work to explain why neither Han or Leia seem to recognize Rey (if she’s their daughter) or at what point in his life Luke had a relationship, conceived and began the raising of a child and then abandoned said child (if Rey is his daughter). Where is it decreed that the most powerful Jedi has to be a Skywalker anyway?

Also, “the Force” as a character with influence kind of helps explain some of the more coincidental elements of the film. Seriously, you mean to tell me Han Solo just happened to be hanging out around Jakku and stumbled upon the Falcon? Even when the First Order’s been orbiting, raiding and surveilling the planet since the start of the film? Artoo wakes up for no apparent reason to deliver the last elusive piece of information our heroes need? Poe Dameron is alive?!! I think they call this Force ex machina.